Riley swims Lake Okanagan for Donations

First off I want to give my most sincere thank you for your support of my swim and this cause! I’m glad I was able to attempt a challenge this big, and even happier that so many people were wanting to support Highway to Healing Support Society and myself. There was over 60 pledgers all over Canada from BC to Ontario, and even a couple from the US and the UK! We doubled my original goal of $2500 in pledges committed, finishing at over $5000! On top of that, there will be even more coming in over the rest of the month from Moksha Yoga Studio in Kelowna!

Lifeguards Rupy and Joanna have both helped Riley prepare for the swim, and will both be doing the swim alongside him. This picture of the three of them was taken after their first swim practice in open water!

Everything went right on race day, and I completed the 2.1km Across the Lake swim with a time of1:02.42! This is unofficially the fastest time for a wheelchair user by 26 seconds, and also makes me the first high-level paraplegic to attempt and complete the swim. It is also almost 12 minutes faster than my previous best time for that distance in the pool. I could have never achieved this alone though – I owe the success to the knowledge and help of Joanna and Rupy, who are lifeguards at the pool I trained at. Joanna started with me from square 1 back in February by giving me swim lessons, and Rupy joined our team shortly after.